Company has place a $3500 debt on my credit reports, stating I violated their terms of service that I cannot write negative reviews about them. I was contacted in May by the kleargear.com ‘legal’ team about a posting that was made online on ripoffreport.com about not receiving the items I purchased on their website in November of 2008. 3.5 years later, I was contacted because of my posting, saying that per their terms of service, they were going to ‘fine’ me $3,500.
I have reviewed their website, both current and from snapshots made by www.archive.org, and found that the terms of service were not updated until at LEAST December of 2010.
This company has now assessed this $3,500 fine, and it is showing up as of 08/25/2012 as a negative debt on my credit.
The post in question (available here: http://www.ripoffreport.com/miscellaneous-electronics/kleargear-com/kleargear-com-incompetent-cust-36yd4.htm) was not posted by me. Also, this ‘fine’ they have assessed does not appear to be legal.
Looking at their current ‘terms of service’ page: http://www.kleargear.com/termsofuse.html They show in the section of ‘Non-Disparagement Clause’ that we are not able to report ANY negative report about them. This seems a violation of the 1st amendment to my right of freedom of speech. There is nothing libel in the posting, it is as statement of facts and events that happened.
Reviewing their past website ‘snapshots’ on www.archive.org, in the time that I used their website, this was the same page: http://web.archive.org/web/20071211110404/http://www.kleargear.com/termsofuse.html
however, there is no ‘non-disparagement clause’ listed in these terms of service. Looking at other snapshots of their webpage, available up to December of 2010, this section still did not exist. I believe that they have added this section, and are now pursuing those that have posted negative reports as an attempt to extort money from people who had bad experiences with their company.
This charge on my credit is nothing more than an attempt at extorting money from me, and is directly impacting my credit score. I have offered the company 30 days as of today (08/28/2012) to completely and fully remove this item from my credit, or I will pursue further legal action against them to remove this, as well as any criminal charges that can be placed against them in this matter. If there are other reports available of other people in a similar situation, this could be elevated to a class-action status.
This company currently looks to operate on a model of suing/charging people, instead of providing the service they advertise. There are MANY MANY reports that list this company as fraudulent, that they charged them and never shipped the merchandise ordered, would not respond to emails or phone calls.
